Pages tagged "abortion"

Black male judges such as Thurgood Marshall, state legislators, and physicians paved the way for legalized abortion, argued that the poor were hardest hit by restrictions, and made sure that women could get this essential care.

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was one of a number of Black men to advocate for the legalization of abortion. He championed an important element of the Roe v. Wade decision.

Katha Pollitt’s compelling and necessary book PRO: Reclaiming Abortion Rights, is now out in paperback. This is good news in a very bleak season for reproductive justice. Pollitt, who writes frequently in the Nation about these issues, makes a clear case that the right to abortion is an economic issue as well as a moral one. Reproductive control “didn’t just make it possible for women to commit to education and work and free them from shotgun marriages and too many kids. It changed how women saw themselves: as mothers by choice.”

Socialist feminists know that women deserve free abortion on demand, a full range of reproductive health care and family services and an economic system allowing for full employment and compensation for caring for the elderly and young. "Reproductive justice" is a concept that moves beyond the notions of "choice" and "rights." It links the calls for reproductive choice (a woman's right to control her own body) to the broader issues of economic justice and human rights (creating conditions that enable people to have children, not only to not have them). Access to abortion is one small, but critical, part of reproductive justice.

Almost from the moment the U.S. Supreme Court issued its weak decision that the legalization of early-stage abortion, like contraception, was based on the principle of privacy (rather than non-discrimination or the right of women to control their own bodies), conservative political and religious forces went on the offensive. So, for the last 40 years, it’s been trench warfare — both ideological and political — over access to legal abortion.

Why should we focus on women’s health right now? Is women's health under attack?

Women, particularly women of color and poor women, have regularly faced government intrusion in their health care and family planning decisions. Recently, the Right has ramped up its attacks and extended them to health providers and services used by all women. According to plannedparenthoodaction.org, “More than 1,000 provisions related to women’s health were introduced in states over the last two years, and 257 of them became laws, the vast majority of which interfere with women’s health.” These provisions include conferring full constitutional rights on a fertilized egg or unconstitutionally banning abortion after six weeks. In 2012, 48 U.S. Senators voted to allow religiously affiliated (not just religious) institutions to refuse to cover contraception to insured employees, as the Affordable Care Act requires. These are all attacks on women’s health and furthermore, women’s reproductive freedom.

Join Steve Max, a founder of the legendary community organizing school, the Midwest Academy, to practice talking about socialism in plain language. Create your own short rap. Use your personal experience and story to explain democratic socialism. Prepare for those conversations about socialism that happen when you table or canvass. This workshop is for those who have already had an introduction to democratic socialism, whether from DSA's webinar or from other sources. Questions? Contact Theresa Alt <talt@igc.org> 607-280-7649.

DSA was concerned to find out that the company that provides our website and online organizing infrastructure, NationBuilder, had as a client the Trump campaign and other right-wing candidates. Progressives built this kind of infrastructure and tools for digital organizing and we have now lost that organizing edge. We are moving to identify other options for a CMS/CRM. As an under-resourced, member funded organization, this move will take time for us to carry out, but it is an important statement for us to make.